


On My Honor, I Will Try

by PyromanicDaydreamer



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cub Scouts, M/M, Mentions of PTSD, Misunderstanding As A Plot Device, no beta we die like stormtroopers, suggestive content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-21
Packaged: 2021-03-23 05:28:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30050616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PyromanicDaydreamer/pseuds/PyromanicDaydreamer
Summary: Din Djarin doesn't much care for Scouting as an institution, but his son's therapist seems to think that it'll be good for Grogu, so he signs him up anyway. Things manage to get interesting when the den leader turns out to be a familiar face.The Cub Scout leader modern au nobody asked for
Relationships: Din Djarin & Grogu | Baby Yoda, Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa/Han Solo
Comments: 49
Kudos: 127





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> No real offense to anyone in the air force; full offense to any marines

There’s a newcomer at the VA. A very attractive one, in an old beat up leather jacket and jeans with holes in them but not in the tasteful way, more like in the way that they’re so old and worn that they just got holes in them, and he has wavy brown hair that hangs past his ears and the scruffy kind of of facial hair that’s so common here and Luke is so remarkably gay that it’s almost painful. Almost, until the new guy looks up from his phone, and Luke can see his  _ eyes _ , big and brown and Luke’s already so far gone that he can already hear his sister making fun of him.

“Hello?” He seems confused, which Luke has to admit is fair because he’s kind of staring at him like a deer caught in the headlights. “Can…Can I help you?”

“Um.” Why? Why is Luke like this? “Uh, hi. I’m Luke. I haven’t seen you around here, before, so. Um. Nice to meet you?” Well, that could have gone a whole lot better. The bright side is that it literally couldn’t have gone much  _ worse. _

He looks Luke up and down, still pretty visibly confused. That’s also fair, because that was the absolute worst introduction he thinks he’s ever experienced.

“I’m Din,” he says finally, and Luke needs him to never stop talking, ever. His voice is lovely, warm and rough. “I just moved to the area.” He waves a hand in a broad  _ all this _ gesture. “Figured I’d check in. You know?”

“Oh, yeah. Yeah, I. Yeah.” Maybe Luke can get away with not telling Leia or Ahsoka about any of this, but he’s pretty sure that both of them will somehow find out anyway, and they will never,  _ ever _ let him forget about this. They never let him forget about a single one of his  _ absolutely useless gay _ moments. “How. How are you liking the area?”

Din eyes Luke up and down again, except it feels distinctly  _ different _ .

“It’s alright,” he says, after a long moment where Luke feels  _ scrutinized _ . “Nice sights.” 

Oh.  _ Oh _ .

* * *

Luke wakes up the next morning to Din getting dressed carefully, like he’s trying not to wake him. It isn’t even morning, really, the bit of sky that Luke can see through the crack in his curtains still mostly a dark grey. He wants to say something, ask him why he’s leaving this early, but. It’s just a hookup. There’s no obligation, that’s how hookups  _ work _ . Luke knows this. He knows how these things work.

“See you around?” he does ask, because they probably  _ will _ , at the VA and probably at the grocery store and the like.

Din pauses in the doorway. “Probably,” he allows, but doesn’t say anything else. No  _ I had fun _ or  _ enjoy the rest of your day _ or anything at all. He leaves, and Luke lays there for a few more minutes, suddenly reminded of why he doesn’t usually hook up with people.

It had been  _ fantastic, _ of course, and Luke absolutely does not regret anything about last night, but he’d kind of been hoping for a round two this morning. Luke climbs out of bed himself, stumbling a little bit once he gets to his feet and wincing at the sensation. It has been a while since he’s had sex with anyone, and Din had…Din had not been gentle. Fuck, Luke feels  _ used _ , but in all the  _ best _ ways. 

He catches sight of himself in the mirror, hair disheveled and throat and chest covered in bite marks and hickeys, and Luke’s supposed to be meeting up with Ahsoka for brunch in a few hours, it’s  _ summer _ , how the  _ fuck _ is he supposed to cover this up?

He sighs and goes to the bathroom. He needs a shower and to not let himself get hung up on the very,  _ very _ attractive ex-Marine that he will almost definitely be seeing at the VA, the one with the tattoos and the well-toned muscles and the bruising grip and relentless pace and—

Luke slams his head against the wall and groans in frustration. He’s an idiot and a gay disaster, and he’s just. Going to have to find a new VA center. Yup. That’s it, that’s the solution here.

* * *

“Oh, my  _ God _ ?” Ahsoka stares up at him when he walks up to the table she’s already seated at, and doesn’t stop staring at him even as he sits down and picks up his menu, even though they both already know exactly what they're going to order. “ _ Oh _ my God?”

“Are you done?” Luke isn’t really in the mood to deal with this, right now, actually.

“Am I—No?” Ahsoka reaches out a hand and slaps it down over the menu Luke isn’t actually trying to read, but he  _ could _ have been. “Was he cute?”

Luke swats her hand out of the way. “Don’t think that’s quite the word for it.”

“Oh my  _ God _ ,” Ahsoka says again. “I’d ask you if he treated you right, but the answer looks pretty obvious from where I’m sitting.”

Luke scoffs. He wouldn’t quite consider trying to leave without saying goodbye  _ being treated right _ , but it’s definitely up near the top of the list for  _ best sex he’s ever had _ . “Do we really have to talk about this right now?”

She’s pouting, when he finally looks up at her. “You’re surprisingly grouchy for someone who just got fucked.”

Luke groans, putting his face down on the table. “I was only up to see him go because I’m a light sleeper.”

“Ouch.” Ahsoka reaches out and gently scratches his scalp. “Was it worth it?”

Luke groans again, longer. “When are the mimosas coming?”

“Do we need to have a movie night tonight?”

“Please?”

* * *

Leia and Han join them for movie night. This is not what Luke wants, and certainly not what he  _ needs _ . But they bring with them a bottle of blue raspberry vodka, which Luke probably doesn’t  _ need _ but definitely  _ wants _ . He reaches out and grabs the bottle before he even greets them, then turns and goes into the kitchen to grab himself a glass. And probably some ice.

“Oh, well. That’s a good sign,” Han says, and Luke can only assume that he and Leia are stepping into the apartment, since his back is to the two of them.

“Are we getting you drunk enough to talk about it, or are you gonna tell us what’s up and then we can all get drunk together?” Leia asks, coming up beside him.

Considering the fact that the glass that Luke’s filling up is one part vodka and one part Sprite, he doesn’t think he needs to answer.

“Okay.” Leia slaps the counter once. “Do you still have that wine I brought over last month?”

“It is in the exact same place it was in when you left,” Luke tells her, picking up his barely-a-cocktail and going back into the living room. “What are we watching?”

“Your emergency movie night, kid,” Han points out, already having claimed his spot on the couch. “What are you in the mood for?”

Luke’s in the mood to be a fully functioning human being, is what Luke’s in the mood for. Barring that, he’ll take something incredibly, painfully stupid with a whole lot of hot guys in it. And alcohol. A whole lot of alcohol. He voices this, and lets his family figure out what the fuck they’re supposed to do with that.

Leia sighs, sitting down next to Han on the couch. “So…Magic Mike?”

Ahsoka groans, which Luke totally understands, because Magic Mike is a Bad Movie™, but it’s exactly the kind of bad movie that he needs right now.

“Yeah,” he agrees, settling himself into the corner of the sectional and letting it swallow him. “Kind of.” 

“Not drunk enough for that, yet,” Han says, standing back up. “Still got that bottle of tequila in your freezer?”

“Nope.” Luke isn’t a tequila drinker; Han had brought it over a few months ago because  _ he’d _ had a bad day, and any booze that gets brought over gets left here because it’s the best place for it to stay. Unfortunately, Luke’s freezer is kind of falling apart, and the shelf that the tequila had been on had collapsed in the middle of the night a couple weeks ago. Most of the contents had survived the cascade down to the floor the next morning. The tequila had not. “Poor freezer craftsmanship. Your tequila was the only casualty.”

“Hey, while you’re up, Jack and Coke?” Ahsoka asks, craning her head back to look at him. “Mostly Jack? This movie  _ sucks _ .”

“I’m not a fucking bartender,” Han grumbles, but he pulls down two glasses anyway. “Do you want grenadine in it?”

“Please?”

* * *

“And then he just fucking  _ left _ ? And like, look, I  _ know _ , it was a  _ fling _ , but I just. Either commit to staying to fucking night or be  _ up front _ about it, right? He tried to fucking  _ sneak out _ like a fucking coward.” Luke is, apparently, angry drunk tonight.

“Hey, listen, you deserve better than a fucking jarhead, anyway, alright,” Ahsoka tells him, probably the least drunk of all of them. “One day, you’ll find a real nice guy with absolutely zero military affiliation who will be suitably impressed by all your cool stories, alright? And it’ll be  _ beautiful _ , and I’ll be the best man at your wedding.”

“Hey!” Han interjects, but he  _ has _ to know that Luke likes Ahsoka more than him and also trusts her with his bachelor party far more than he’ll ever trust Han.

“I  _ do _ deserve better than a fucking  _ jarhead _ ,” Luke agrees vehemently. “Where is the next closest VA center?”

“That’s not the solution and you know it.” Leia reaches out and shoves him, none too gently, and he falls over into Ahsoka’s lap. “If you see him again, you make him fucking  _ regret _ trying to sneak out on you. You’re a catch and way out of his league, and you make sure he fucking  _ knows _ it.”

“He had a leather jacket, Leia,” Luke commiserates. “And  _ tattoos _ .”

“Never had a chance, did you?” Ahsoka’s hand finds its way into Luke’s hair, fingers massaging his scalp in soothing circular motions. 

“I was my usual awkward disaster self and it wasn’t totally off putting,” Luke mumbles. “I know flings never go anywhere, but. I dunno. Thought this one could have.”

“Too bad he turned out to be a total jackass,” Han says. Luke couldn’t have put it better if he were sober.

* * *

School. Din has to get Grogu to school. It is the middle of August,  _ why _ is Grogu already two weeks behind? What kind of sadistic asshole decided to start the school year in the  _ middle _ of summer instead of at its end? He gets his son up and dressed and fed, and Grogu clutches his brand new backpack to his chest with an excited grin. Din doesn’t remember first grade that well, but he’s pretty sure he was never  _ this  _ excited to go to school, and definitely not when it was a  _ new _ school.

And then, after getting Grogu to school… _ fuck _ . Din has to go back to the VA. His first meeting with his new (and hopefully temporary) therapist is this morning, and then he needs to check out that list of recommendations for child therapists that Grogu’s therapist had given him before they’d left.

It’s been a week since the last time he’d gone to the VA, and therefore, it has been a week since  _ Luke _ . A week of feeling absolutely terrible for the way that he’d just  _ left _ , attempting to sneak right out like some kind of  _ asshole _ . Usually, if he ends up staying the night, he at least stays long enough to go another round in the morning—and he had  _ wanted _ to go another round with Luke,  _ fuck _ had he wanted to—but the babysitter he’d gotten had texted him that Grogu had woken up in the middle of the night and wouldn’t stop screaming when he saw that Din hadn’t been home, and. There wasn’t exactly  _ time _ for Din to explain. What the fuck would he have even said?  _ Sorry, my son is having a panic attack because he’s afraid the reason I’m not home right now is that I’m dead, I have to go so I can call the babysitter and talk to him so he knows I’m okay. See you around! _

And even still half asleep, Luke had been pretty clearly upset at having caught Din trying to sneak out, which had made Din feel even  _ worse _ . But there hadn’t been anything for it, so he’d walked right out of the apartment like a total dick and then realized that he had, very stupidly, left his fucking bike  _ at the VA _ . 

Once he’d managed to get home and convince Grogu that he was, in fact, alive and well, he’d resolved to himself that the next time he saw Luke he would explain the situation and  _ apologize _ . It’s just that, right now, now that the possibility of that confrontation being  _ today _ , he would rather do anything else.

He gets Grogu to school, and takes himself to the VA for his first therapy appointment. Luke’s car isn’t in the parking lot, which is both a great sign and a terrible one. The longer he goes without apologizing, the more upset Luke will probably end up being when they finally  _ do _ see each other again. But, again, now that seeing Luke today is a very real possibility, he isn’t actually sure that he’s ready. How do you tell someone that you slept with that you have a  _ child _ ? The more that he thinks about and tries to plan what he’ll tell him, the more he realizes that there is no good way to have this conversation.

It ends up being a moot point, anyway. Luke isn’t here today, and the therapist the VA scrounged up agrees that he’s probably not the most qualified for Din’s remarkably specific set of problems. He’ll still have to check in with him, because that’s the way that the VA  _ works _ , but he’s getting a referral to a civilian that does a lot of work with military families for his more regular appointments.

It’ll probably be a while before Din sees Luke again, which will give him plenty of time to figure out how to explain himself. Which is good, because it’ll also give Luke plenty of time to figure out whether or not he wants to  _ deck _ Din the next time he’s in close enough proximity to do so.

* * *

“I think he’d benefit from some extracurricular activities,” Grogu’s therapist, a bubbly woman who’d introduced herself as  _ Dr Jessica _ tells Din one Monday afternoon. “Somewhere to interact with kids his age outside of school.”

“Like sports?” Din doesn’t know what recreational sports are in season right now. Or, more importantly, which ones are currently holding signups. He also doesn’t know a single goddamn thing about sports, what Grogu would need or where he’d go to get any of it.

“Yeah,” Jessica says with a nod. “Or scouts, which might be a bit easier this time of year. Both rec football leagues closed registration about a week ago, and basketball doesn’t open for another month. Cub scouts are kind of always open, or at least the local packs are. And it’d be a better option for him anyway, I think. Sports invite a lot of really competitive kids and  _ really _ intense parents, and while I can’t say scouts are completely without those kinds of people, they tend to be easier to ignore.”

Jessica makes some excellent points, Din has to admit, but he really,  _ really _ , hates the fucking Boy Scouts.

* * *

“Jessica tells me that she recommended Cub Scouts?”

Dr Freidman is surprisingly not pushy, for a shrink, and he has a way of making Din confront everything he tries not to confront without Din realizing what he’s doing. He and Jessica talk to each other about their respective Djarins (with Din’s consent, of course) so that they can make sure that they’re on the same page. It’s also a good idea because most of what Din talks to Freidman about is Grogu anyway.

“She did.”

“And you have some concerns?”

Oh, Din has some  _ concerns _ . “Scouts are full of themselves and think they’re better than everyone else just because their parents had enough money to buy them everything they needed to earn more badges, or whatever the fuck they’re called.”

“Boy Scouts. Boy Scouts are like that. Your son is six, and his denmates will be six.”

“ _ This _ year.” Din’s well aware of how Cub Scouts move up with age and have the same packmates every year; he’s also well aware of how well they take to newcomers. Or, rather, how well they  _ don’t _ . “One of my foster parents made me do it for a few months. Would have been better off without it.”

“Perhaps,” Freidman doesn’t quite agree with him, “but I must say that I agree with Jessica that you should register Grogu for something extracurricular. Not only would it give him more interaction with people his own age, it would introduce you to other parents that could potentially…prove to be a great benefit to you. Football’s out for the year, but there is indoor soccer and basketball coming up, although both of those tend to be a bit pricier.”

“And scouts isn’t?” Din’s not  _ stupid _ , he can tell when he’s being led to a conclusion. “I’d have to buy him his uniform, his book, his—”

“There’s a local pack that’s very accommodating for the more financially challenged families,” Freidman interrupts. “And I’ve heard that the Cubmaster is very good at deterring the more…intense parents from being so intense.”

Din isn’t even going to bother asking him what the fuck that means.

* * *

He ends up giving Grogu the choice between scouts or sports, and Grogu, unfortunately, chooses scouts. So he gets the information from Jessica and gets him registered in a pack that holds meetings about twenty minutes away from the house. The Cubmaster assures him that Grogu won’t be too far behind joining so late, and also offers any of her son’s supplies that Din might not be able to afford right away. He’s a couple years ahead of Grogu, so he has no need for his old Tiger book or any of the other Tiger-specific stuff he’d amassed back then. Din thanks her for the offer and tells her that he’ll get back to her on it, even though he has no intention of accepting handouts. He’ll make it work.

He takes Grogu to the store that the Cubmaster had told him he could go to for scout supplies after his appointment with Jessica on Monday, and he discovers that it’s not as bad as he’d feared. He’d been told that the only thing Grogu needs right now in terms of uniform is the blue shirt, and even then he doesn’t need to wear it  _ every  _ week once he gets a couple of the pack t-shirts, and the only thing he needs by way of supplies is the handbook. He can afford that. No problem.

No, the  _ problem _ comes when Grogu finds a giant stuffed bear in one of the bins on their way to checkout, and Din’s only able to tell him no when he sees the fifty dollar price tag on it. He makes him put it back, only to be met with those wide eyes and sniffles, and Din’s better than that, he  _ is _ .

He gets Grogu a much smaller stuffed bear instead.

When Wednesday rolls around, he outfits Grogu in his little blue scout shirt and takes a few pictures of him holding the handbook before loading him into the car and driving down to where the meetings are held. It seems to be a church, because scouts are  _ always _ held in churches, in Din’s experience, but a very modern looking one. There are some kids running around on an unimpressive playground right by the parking lot, fenced off to keep anyone from running in front of the cars. The parking lot isn’t even really a parking lot, so much as a field of grass that other people have already parked their cars in.

“Mr Djarin, I presume?”

Din turns from where he’s helping Grogu out of the car and finds himself face to face with a woman who’s about a head shorter than him wearing a pair of jeans and a bright green t-shirt with the Cub Scout logo on the chest and the pack number underneath it.

“Din,” he says, holding out a hand. “This is Grogu.” Grogu waves up at the woman, looking suddenly shy.

“Leia Solo,” she introduces herself, taking his hand and giving it a firm shake. “Pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise.”

“I’ll show you where the Tigers meet,” Leia says, and she turns and starts walking into the building. Din locks the car behind him and follows. “My brother is the den leader, since none of the parents wanted to do it and he owes me a few favors.” The hall that they enter into is almost ominous, with white cinderblock walls and faintly flickering fluorescent lights, but the kids that Din can see running up and down don’t seem too bothered by it. Leia leads him down to the third door on the left, just past a turn into another hall on the right, and says as she enters, “Look alive, Skywalker.”

Din walks in after her and freezes, his eyes meeting the den leader’s familiar blue ones as recognition passes through them. Of fucking  _ course _ Luke from the VA ended up being Grogu’s fucking den leader, because the universe loves nothing more than fucking with Din’s life and making it as difficult and painful as possible. 

Luke, to his credit, seems just as shocked and uncomfortable with this development as Din is. And then his eyes flick down to Grogu, tiny for his age and clinging tight onto Din’s hand, and he can’t quite place the emotion that settles on his face as he connects those dots. At least it solves the part of the problem where Din has to figure out how to open his explanation with  _ so I have this kid _ .

Leia sighs. “I see you two already know each other,” she says, and  _ oh no _ . How close is Luke to his sister? How much does she know about…all of this? Is she going to hate him for it? “I have to go talk to my husband before the meeting starts officially, so I’ll see you around.”

“No, wait, Leia—” Luke reaches a hand out to try and stop Leia from leaving, which Din just thinks seems to be unfair. They’re not being left  _ alone _ , there are half a dozen small children in here, and a couple of scout moms. Din isn’t going to try anything  _ here _ . “Oh, I’m never going to hear the end of this.”

“Your sister seems nice.” Din’s at a loss for what exactly he’s supposed to say, since the only conversation topic that he’s got is not appropriate for their current company.

“She’s a very good actress,” Luke tells him, still staring forlornly at the doorway, like he thinks he can just summon her back here. “She’s definitely going to  _ gossip _ .” He sighs. “Um. Truce?”

Din hadn’t been aware that they were in a position where  _ truce _ needed to be called. “This is Grogu,” he says, instead of accepting the offer he doesn’t know what to do with. He picks Grogu up, even though his back tries to tell him not to, and adds, “Grogu, this is Mr Luke. He’s going to be your den leader, okay?”

Grogu waves shyly up at Luke. Luke relaxes a bit, smiling at the kid and saying, “Hi, Grogu. Are you excited to make some new friends?”

Grogu looks over at Din, who smiles up at him. He looks back at Luke and nods. Din sets him back down, and he runs off to find a seat at one of the tables, long rectangular ones arranged to form a square in the center of the room.

“He doesn’t talk much when he first meets new people,” Din explains. “He’s. He’s shy. It’ll probably be a couple weeks before he starts opening up.”

Luke nods. “That’s fine. Um. You’re welcome to stay, if you want. Or if he wants. If you. If you think it’ll help him, I mean. You know?”

He’s so  _ nervous _ , Din thinks, and it’s so  _ funny _ because it doesn’t even necessarily have anything to do with the fact that Din fucked him and then tried to sneak away in the middle of the night because Luke was stammering and stuttering the exact same way  _ before _ that had happened. It was why Din took the chance in the  _ first _ place. He probably  _ shouldn’t _ stay, because he’s already so smitten with the man in front of him that spending any more time with him—watching him interact with his  _ son _ —would only serve to make him even more so.

“I’ll ask him if he wants me to stay,” Din decides, because it’s up to Grogu, ultimately. It’s always up to Grogu.

Luke nods. “Alright. Sounds. Sounds fair.”

Grogu does want Din to stay, so Din stays. And Luke seems to be avoiding him, as much as he can given the circumstances, and Din wants so desperately to apologize for everything but this is such a bad time, all things considered. The only plus side to this whole disaster of an evening is that Grogu seems to be enjoying himself, which is only a positive thing until Din realizes that it means that they’re going to be doing this  _ every week _ . Din’s going to have to be in the same room as Luke for an hour and a half every single week, watching Luke be fucking great with kids the whole time, and he’s going to have to somehow manage to be okay with the fact that Luke almost certainly hates him.

The meeting ends, and Din has absolutely no idea what actually happened in its duration, but he knows that this is the best chance he has to explain himself the way that Luke deserves.

“Hey.” Grogu’s playing that dots game in an old coloring book with one of the other boys, and Luke’s cleaning up some of his papers and sticking them into an old bookbag. “Can we talk?”

Luke pauses, closes his eyes, and sighs. It is not a great sign. “Yeah. Yeah, I guess we probably should.”

They go out into the hall, just outside the door, so that Luke can still keep an eye on the kids. It’s as private as they can get, even though it isn't private at all. “I just wanted to apologize,” Din begins. “I hadn’t…been planning on doing that to you.” He hopes that he can get away with being vague because of the possibility of kids hearing them. “I got a text from the babysitter, it was an emergency. I needed to get home. I was just trying not to wake you, I wasn’t. I wasn’t trying to  _ escape _ .”  _ I’d like to have a do-over, if you’ll give me one _ . “But I’m very sorry that it seemed like I was, and more sorry that I’m only just now getting the chance to explain myself. You deserve better than that.”

Luke stares up at him, and Din really,  _ really _ wants that do-over. “I understand,” Luke says finally. “Thank you for telling me. I really appreciate it.” He smiles up at Din, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “See you next week?”

Din nods. “See you next week.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cw: mentions of car crashes and explosions, mildly touched on ptsd. take care of yourselves, babes!
> 
> also shoutout to SleepySongs for straight up calling that Luke was gonna think Din was married, i laughed so hard when i read your comment

_ "Unbelievable _ ."

“She really wasted  _ no _ time, huh?”

_ "I cannot  _ believe _ how absolutely batshit this has gotten. It’s like a soap opera." _

Luke sighs. He’d checked his phone immediately after getting out to his car and found a text from Ahsoka that simply read  _ call me when the brats are gone _ , which Luke could only assume meant that she already knew about this new fun factor in his life. “It’s not a  _ soap opera _ , Snips. Nobody’s died.”

_ "Yet." _ Ahsoka laughs. " _ Leia said she could clearly see the five stages of grief play out on your face, do you think your guy noticed or was he too busy thinking about you naked?" _

Luke needs better friends. “Did you really make me call you just so that you could be fucking weird about this?”

_ "No, I made you call me because I wanted to know if there were any  _ other _ developments that Leia was absent for." _

Luke sighs. “He apologized. Apparently, he got a text from the babysitter, and there was an emergency that needed his immediate attention.”

_ "Do we believe him?" _

Luke does, for some reason. Intrinsically. “He apologized without any prompting,” he says finally. “And…he was very earnest. And his eyes are  _ super _ fucking expressive, like. Like, I don’t think it’s physically  _ possible _ for him to lie about his feelings, and—”

_ "Okay, you’re starting to get gross, actually, so I’ll see you on Sunday. Please don’t show up covered in hickeys again, because it was weird enough the first time." _ She hangs up before Luke can say anything else.

“Fan-fucking-tastic,” Luke mumbles. It sums up his thoughts pretty well.

* * *

“And I think his sister— _ stop laughing _ —I think his sister figured it out immediately, which means—Dune, this isn’t  _ that  _ funny—”

_ "God, this is fucking  _ hilarious _ , what do you mean it’s not that funny?" _ Cara counters through her nearly hysterical laughter. " _ How the  _ fuck _ did you get into something like this?" _

If Din had to guess, he’d say that it has something to do with the way that the universe is obsessed with making his life difficult. “I don’t know. I’m not interested in finding out.”

_ "I’m interested," _ Cara argues. " _ You gonna fuck him again?" _

Absolutely not. Din’s lucky that Luke didn’t tell him to fuck off and keep to himself, never mind how difficult it would be to convince him to meet up outside of scout functions. “No.”

_ "You wanna fuck him again, though." _

“Of  _ course _ I want to, Dune, that’s not the  _ point _ .” He wraps an arm around Grogu’s waist and pulls him away from the counter. “No cookies right before bed, kid, you know the rules.”

_ "I’ll leave you to bedtime," _ Cara says, like she’s said all that she needs to say about all of this. " _ Have fun fucking your Tiger twink!" _

“Do  _ not _ call him that,  _ ever _ again.”

_ "No promises!" _

Din sighs, setting the phone down on the counter and hefting a giggling Grogu up into a fireman’s carry. “Bedtime, gremlin. Come on.”

Grogu squeals with laughter, kicking his feet in the air and hitting Din’s back with his fists. “No!”

“Yes,” Din counters. “No arguing.” Grogu blows a raspberry but settles down, just in time for Din to get into the bedroom and set him down on the bed. “What story do you want tonight?”

“Goat!”

Din probably could have guessed that. It’s been Grogu’s favorite lately, which is only a little concerning. He pulls out the battered, beat up storybook that he’s had for as long as he can remember from its place on Grogu’s bookshelf and settles down beside him on the bed. They’ve been reading the Wolf and Seven Little Goats so often lately that the book falls open to the first page, and Din begins reading right away.

Grogu reads along with him at parts, and there’s a couple paragraphs that Din lets Grogu read without him. It fills him with pride that he can read as well as he can, because he knows that he hadn’t had as much time to work with him as much as he would have liked. It’s good to see that Grogu isn’t struggling because of it.

They finish the story, and Din kisses his son goodnight and tucks him in. “Goodnight, kid.”

“Night, Daddy.”

* * *

The first time that Grogu had called Din  _ daddy _ , Din had spent about a week having an absolute psychotic break and called about three separate emergency meetings with his old therapist. Jameson, to her credit, took the whole thing in stride and let Din try and work through the problem himself. It took a while. Because, the thing is, Din isn’t his  _ father _ . Grogu’s  _ father _ was his best friend, his roommate in the barracks at their first proper station and the only member of his old unit that had been easy for Din to become friends with. He still loves all his other friends from his old unit, of  _ course _ he does, but it had taken a lot more work on all their parts for the friendships to build.

Din had been the best man at his wedding, and named godfather of their son. And that was fine, except for the part where Din didn’t know the first thing about kids. He’d been assured that the odds of him ending up having to take care of the kid were negligible at best, but. Well. Here Din is, with a kid that he has to take care of.

They’d been stationed overseas in Afghanistan when an IED had taken out their HUM-V, flipping it over and trapping the two of them under the wreckage for hours. Din had survived, albeit with some nerve damage in his left arm. His partner had not.

Din had been medically retired and sent home to his last domestic station, where he’d helped the new widow plan the funeral and did what he could to help her with her two-year-old son. It was only three months after he’d been buried that she’d died in a hit-and-run with a drunk driver, and Din had sole custody of a child he hadn’t known what to do with, one that wasn’t even fully potty-trained and wasn’t talking yet.

Jameson had assured him that it was perfectly normal for Din to be uneasy with being seen as a father, and that it was equally normal for Grogu to see him as a father. This was not as comforting as he thinks it was meant to be.

The rest of his unit had been massively helpful, surprisingly. Only one of them had a kid of his own, so only one of them  _ actually _ knew what kinds of things he needed, but the fact that they were so eager to help him at all was greatly appreciated. It made it a little easier for him to get his feet underneath him, not having to worry about clothes or finding babysitters. Competent babysitters, still difficult, but willing ones were easy to come by. Some of them paired up, either with their wives or with other guys in the unit.

Grogu started talking later than most kids, something the child therapist had promised Din was perfectly normal given all the circumstances, and even now he doesn’t talk a whole lot. He talks most at home, when it’s just the two of them, because this is where he feels safest and most comfortable, but it’s still usually just a couple words at a time. Din’s still largely unconcerned, because Jessica still tells him that it’s totally normal.

He sighs, getting himself ready for bed and trying not to think too hard about what he’s supposed to do about the fact that he’s got the beginnings of a crush blooming for someone he’d fucked and walked out on weeks ago, and is now his son’s den leader. It is not a great thing for him to have to deal with, right now. Or ever, really. Luke, for as nice as he is, probably won’t properly forgive him for a while yet, even if he has accepted the apology.

* * *

“I know I told you not to show up covered in hickeys, but you were  _ supposed  _ to do the exact opposite out of spite.” 

Luke glares at her. “I’m wearing a hoodie, how do you know there’s nothing hiding underneath it, huh?” There isn’t, of course. Luke hasn’t seen or heard from Din since Wednesday, and he doesn’t expect to see him until next Wednesday at the next meeting.

“Mm,” Ahsoka hums, setting her drink back down on the table. “Not the right hoodie. That massive oversized Black Parade one, that’s the one you always wear to cover hickeys. The hood comes up to your chin, it’s so big.”

Luke hates that she knows that about him. “And  _ anyway _ . I don’t think it’s a good idea to start anything more…long term, with Din. Like a, uh, conflict of interest. You know?”

“No?” Ahsoka frowns. “Isn’t Han…Ben’s den leader? Isn’t that the more normal thing? You’re the outlier, not having a kid in your pack-den-thing? You’re not a  _ teacher _ , Luke.”

Ah, yes, that’s right. Even though Ahsoka isn’t really involved in the whole scout thing, she still knows enough to see right through Luke’s feeble excuse.

The problem is that Luke’s a little concerned about…not-yet-developed developments. Because, here’s what he knows: Din has a son. This is more than likely not a biological child, because Grogu and Din look absolutely nothing alike. That means that Din, a gay veteran, had managed to adopt a child. Luke knows enough about how all that stuff works to know that a single, queer, retired veteran would never be granted adoption outside of extremely specific circumstances. The only logical conclusion that Luke can draw is that there is, much to his mortification, a spouse. Probably.

He’ll keep that not-yet-developed development to himself, because he doesn’t need to deal with the whole new layer of pity that would come from it.

“Yeah, well. Still probably a bad idea.”

* * *

Luke handles seeing Din this week much better than he did last week, since he actually knows it’s coming this time. But he still doesn’t handle it  _ well _ . Just. Better.

“Just keep from making it weird in front of the kiddos, alright?” Han says, slapping Luke on the back. Luke…can’t make any promises. “And talk to me later. I don’t want to be the last to know about this week’s episode of your fucked up soap opera.”

Luke reaches out and slaps Han in the chest. “It isn’t a  _ soap opera _ .” But it is. It really is.

Han walks out of the Tiger room right as Din walks into it, Grogu on his back piggyback style. Din smiles at him as he kneels down to let his son down, and Luke’s heart skips a couple beats.  _ Bad. Don’t do that _ . He’s already in so deep over his head, he really needs to find a way to back out now. Unfortunately, there isn’t a way to do that without either quitting or trying to convince Din to pull Grogu out of scouts—both not actual options. “How was your week?” Din asks him, standing back up.

“Um. Uneventful.” Mostly, it’s true. The highlights of Luke’s weeks are always scouts and Sunday brunch with Ahsoka. “Yours?”

“As close to uneventful as it could be, with him.” He gestures to Grogu, who’d run off to sit in the seat he’d had last week. “Little menace.”

“Yeah, but. A really cute one.” Luke smiles. “Like a kitten. The really small ones, with the little triangle tails?”

Din blinks at him in confusion. “Are you…comparing my son to a  _ cat _ ?”

Luke can’t tell if Din’s offended by the idea or not. Ben had been very much like a cat at that age, zooming around the house and knocking things over and acting like he didn’t know that what he was doing was against any rules despite the fact that he  _ obviously _ knew. But that’s…probably not something Luke should have said to someone he’s only met a couple times, even if that first time he had seen more of him than most people see at first meetings. “Um. Yes. A tiny one. Ahsoka refers to them as bumper car kittens?”

“Bumper car kittens?” Din repeats, and Luke needs to  _ stop talking _ .

“Uh, yes? Cuz their tails, uh, stick straight…straight up. Like bumper cars. I dunno, she read something about it online and it sort of just stuck with all of us, I guess. You know how those things work. Right?”

“No.” All of Luke’s explanations seem like they’re only serving to make Din more confused. “But you’re right. I think. Lotta trouble, very cute.”

Well. That could have gone a lot worse, probably.

Din stays for the meeting again, tucked into the corner with the den moms as Luke spends the meeting walking the kids through the requirements for one of the core beltloops for the year. The hour and a half passes pretty quickly, and Luke tells all of them that they have to complete one more requirement during the week. “Any one you want, and make sure you have a parent sign your handbook to show me next week. Okay?”

There’s a chorus of  _ yes, Mr Luke _ s, and then the kids all get up and either go to their respective adult in the corner or go right out into the hall to wait for their ride. A few of the moms come up to him and ask him questions, things like  _ does it matter which requirement _ and  _ what if we don’t have time to do any of these  _ and  _ he has enough homework with school, shouldn’t he be able to do all the scout stuff here _ , the last of which is very difficult for Luke to be polite about.

“He can do any of them on the way home, ma’am. They’re all just talking. All he has to do is ask you a question and get an answer. It won’t take away any homework time, I assure you.”

“ _ This _ time, it’s just a conversation, but what about the next one? His grades are  _ very  _ important, and—”

“He’s a first grader,” Din interrupts, walking up with Grogu on his back again. “How much homework can his teacher be giving him?”

“He’s at a  _ magnet _ school,” she explains, looking Din up and down with disdain. Luke needs to keep her from saying something that will piss Din off further. “Not that—”

“If you’re really so concerned about him being able to do homework and scout stuff, I’m sure we can work something out,” Luke assures her. “But I know that this week, at least, it won’t be an issue. Alright? We can examine this on a week-by-week basis. Deal?”

“ _ Fine _ .”

Luke hates private school parents. He sighs, waiting until after she’s fully out of sight before turning to Din and asking, “Did you have any questions for me?”

“Just one.” Din holds up Grogu’s handbook. “We’re allowed to work on some of these on our own time, right?”

“Of course!” Luke hadn’t expected Din to be one of the parents that was interested in that, but he’s so glad that he is. “Encouraged, even. Each beltloop page has a list of requirements, and most of them only ask you to do three or four total. It’s very straightforward. Just sign off on anything he does, and then show me what he’s done each week.” He grins. “Make sense?”

“I think so.” He looks up at Grogu. “Think we can figure that out?” Grogu nods. Din turns back to Luke and says, “Thank you. See you next week.”

“You’re welcome. See you!”

* * *

It is very straightforward. Din spends the week going through the handbook, finding things that he doesn’t think Luke plans to cover in meetings. It’s difficult to tell what Luke would or wouldn’t be planning on doing, since he doesn’t actually know Luke all that well, but he does the best he can.

Saturday, he and Grogu go to the park. There’s a nature trail that Din’s been told about that he thinks Grogu would enjoy, and it would probably tick a few things off in the handbook. Probably, because there are a  _ lot _ of things in it, and Din can hardly remember any of them. They have a good time on the nature trail, even though Grogu starts to get a little fussy about halfway through. Din carries him the rest of the way through on piggyback, pointing out the different plants and reading off the little plaques. 

His back is killing him by the time they get off the nature trail, and they still have to get the rest of the way to the car. They get to the main part of the park, and Din checks the time. “Wanna stay and play for a bit?” he asks, because the trail hadn’t taken up a whole lot of time, and it’ll tire him out enough that it’ll make it easier for Din to get him down for bed tonight.

“Yeah!” Grogu agrees. Din makes his way over to one of the picnic tables and sets Grogu down on it.

“Alright. Go play.” Grogu doesn’t wait to be told twice.

Din settles down at the picnic table and keeps an eye on Grogu as he climbs up to the top of the slide. He watches him run around for a few minutes before a voice behind him says, “Hey, stranger.”

Din looks up and finds Leia and another man he’s seen around at meetings behind him, a boy about eight already running away from them. “Hello.”

Leia sits down beside Din while her husband (Din assumes) sits down across from them. “Have you met Han?”

“Not formally.” Din holds out a hand, and he very much does not like the look on Han’s face as the other man takes it. “Din.”

“Oh, I’ve heard.” He flinches, then says, “ _ Ow _ .”

“So, how’s your little guy enjoying being a Tiger scout?” Leia asks him, like she didn’t just kick her husband under the table.

“Seems to be enjoying it okay.” Din shrugs; it’ll take a couple more weeks yet for him to know for sure whether Grogu really likes it. “Seems to be making friends, too, which is good.” Jessica seems to think it’s going extremely well, which is all that Din really needed to know. He still feels like he doesn’t really know what he’s doing, most days, and is glad that he’s got someone who gets paid to tell him when he’s on the right track.

“And how are you enjoying the den leader?” Han asks, only for Leia to kick him again. “ _ Ow! _ ”

“Han, I left my phone in the car,” Leia tells him innocently. “Can you go get it for me?”

“I know you didn’t,” Han grumbles, but he gets up anyway. “It’s fine. Gotta call Ahsoka anyway.”

“And tell her  _ what _ , Solo?” Leia watches him leave, then turns to Din the moment he’s out of earshot. “You should probably just ignore him. He’s an asshole.”

“How much do you know?” Din may as well get this over with, now.

“More than I’d like to,” Leia admits. “He was pretty upset the next day. We watched one of the worst movies in cinematic history and he drank almost half a bottle of blue raspberry vodka on his own. Got chatty.” She shrugs. “But he also told us what you said a couple weeks ago. He’s not as upset anymore.”

“As upset?” That means that he  _ is _ still upset, now. Din’s not surprised, but he really wishes he’d been wrong.

Leia sighs. “He’ll get over it. He always does. Just give him a bit more time.” She nods over to where Grogu and Ben are, Ben showing the younger boy something in his hand. Grogu seems intrigued. “Keep showing him how good you are with that kid of yours and he’ll be yours by Crossover. Just wait.” She gets up and walks away before Din can ask how the hell she knows that’s the outcome he’s hoping for.

“Okay. Good talk.”

* * *

“Your sister wants me to help with the can thing again this year.”

Luke steals one of the strips of bacon off Ahsoka’s plate, ignoring her as she tries to slap his hand away. “How come when you don’t like what she’s asking you to do she’s  _ my  _ sister, but the second you approve of whatever she’s saying she becomes  _ our _ sister?”

“Because if she’s my sister, I feel obligated to help the brats sort boring cans,” Ahsoka explains shamelessly. “If she’s  _ your _ sister, then I can tell you to politely tell her to stop harassing me about it.”

“Okay, first,” Luke leans back in his chair, “you and I both know the only person dumb enough to tell Leia to fuck off—politely or otherwise—is the remarkably stupid man she married.” Ahsoka makes a gesture of concession. “Point the second: she isn’t harassing you. She probably asked you  _ once _ , over text.”

Ahsoka scoffs. “Yeah, but you  _ know _ she’ll ask me again closer to the stupid can thing. Why would I wake up early to steal food from strangers on a  _ Saturday _ ?”

Luke does not know why Leia keeps asking Ahsoka to help with these things.

“I’m not even going to bother with that one.”

Scouting for Food is almost two months away, anyway. Nothing to worry about.

* * *

“How does Cub Scouts seem to be working out for you and Grogu?”

Din shrugs. “It’s okay. He seems to be enjoying himself.”

Freidman nods. “And you? Have you taken my advice about talking to some of the other parents?”

Din had thought about it. But most of the other parents he’s seen around are mothers, and all the den mothers that hang around for meetings like he does seem to be interested in little more than staring at him the whole time. The only conversation that Din’s had with another parent so far has been with Han and Leia, both of whom seemed more interested in talking about the whole  _ hooked up with Luke a while back  _ thing than anything having to do with parenting or with kids. He’s also had that brief interaction with  _ magnet school _ mom, and he didn’t much care for that shit at all.

“Not yet.”

“You should try talking to at least one of them this week,” Freidman tells him. That’s the thing about therapy that nobody had told Din about: he still gets  _ homework _ . Magnet School Mom would pitch a fit, not that she’d ever sign her precious genius kid up for  _ therapy _ . That would just be  _ beneath _ them. “As I have said, it’d be a good way to build yourself a support structure of fellow  _ parents _ . Your former unit sounds like they were good for helping you adjust, but there’s only so much advice a bunch of childless people can offer a single father who didn’t have the usual time to prepare for fatherhood.”

What the fuck is Din supposed to do, go up to someone and say  _ hey my therapist thinks I should talk to someone so I arbitrarily chose you _ like some kind of weird backward pick up line? God, that would make him sound  _ insane _ .

“You don’t have to talk about kids at first, of course,” Freidman continues, like he knows exactly what Din’s reservations are. “Although it  _ is _ a very easy icebreaker. But you can talk about anything at all. One conversation with an adult that is also a parent. That’s all I’m asking.”

It’s one of those things that sounds like it should be easy, but probably won’t actually be. “Alright. Okay.”

“Now, tell me about your…friend.” 

Din groans. He regrets having told Freidman about all of this as it was happening. “No developments, not that I was expecting one. Still good with kids. Probably a bad idea. I talked to his sister, she says he’s still upset about everything.”

“Sounds like you’re making assumptions.” Freidman shrugs. “But I am not a couple’s counselor, and so I’m just going to have to leave you be.”

“I’m not—” Din sighs. “He’s. He’s really good with kids. Grogu seems to like him, and…That’s pretty uncommon, this early. He doesn’t really take to anyone after only a couple weeks. But I still feel like I fucked it up before it ever really started, so. I don’t really know what I’m supposed to do.”

“Well, as I said, I’m not a couple’s counselor,” Freidman says. “But I hear that most couple’s counselors have a tendency to tell their clients all the same thing.”

“And what’s that?” Din’s not really sure he wants to know the answer, but he doesn’t think he could get away with not asking.

“ _ Communicate _ . Talk to him. See where it goes.” 

Yeah, that’s about where Din thought that was going.

* * *

Din doesn’t talk to Luke on Wednesday. He does talk to Leia, because he already halfway knows her, and she seems like the easiest option because of it. 

“Trying to get on my good side before sweet talking my brother?” Leia asks him, about five minutes into the conversation.

Din sighs. “Is…Is that a common problem for you? Is that something that people  _ do _ to you?”

Leia shrugs. “Not often. But sometimes.” She sits down beside him where they’re watching the kids on the playground. “And you’re in a unique position in regards to Luke, so I figured you’re probably trying to make up lost ground.”

“So you think I have enough lost ground to make the effort worth it.” Din wishes she’d just tell him outright whether or not Luke’s genuinely upset.

“I feel like  _ you  _ think that,” Leia corrects. “Although I  _ will _ say, if you ever make us watch Magic Mike again, I will absolutely destroy you.”

“What the  _ hell _ is Magic Mike?” Din asks. He has absolutely no idea what the fuck Leia’s talking about right now.

“Oh. Oh, hang onto that. Knowing will change your life, and not for the better.” Leia pats his arm. “The ignorance will not last.”

_ What _ .

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i know not much happened in this chapter, but next chapter has some real great ~family bonding~ in it that i think everyone will enjoy

**Author's Note:**

> come say hi at pyromanicdaydreamer.tumblr.com!


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